


Behind the Eight Ball

by orphan_account



Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: M/M, My Life My Tapes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:28:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24517690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “Where were you all that time?” Cooper asked softly. He’d asked before. The answers differed in their wording, but never in their evasiveness.
Relationships: Dale Cooper/Windom Earle
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Behind the Eight Ball

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place during MLMT after Windom's temporary disappearance, but before Cooper goes to the island and Caroline is kidnapped. There are numerous references to the former throughout this, including a phone call made to Caroline where the only words Windom spoke were "I'm sinking." Also a reference to the guy Cooper shot during MLMT.

Cooper sat at the edge of the bed, listening. Windom was murmuring quiet sweetness to Caroline out in the hallway. She’d been trying for days to understand what had happened. What the words _I’m sinking_ had meant when Windom said them to her over the phone. 

When she spoke to Windom, her eyes would often slide over to meet Cooper’s, seeking some kind of company for her trial. That action, the fact that even Caroline was driven to seek an ally in these things, was more a signal to how bad things were than anything else. The things Windom said didn’t make sense anymore. But there were things beyond words that still made sense. Caroline believed this, enjoined Cooper to believe it, too. 

For as long as he had believed this, he had felt that if he could help Windom, and reassure Caroline, then it might make up for his failures. The man he had shot haunted these thoughts. If Cooper could not be _good_ , then he could be _cathartic_.

He was still sitting on the edge of the bed when Windom came into the room, holding only a carton of cigarettes. There was a tension in his shoulders that had been present since his reappearance. 

“Would you like one?” he held out the carton. Cooper shook his head, but stood up. He had never accepted a cigarette from Windom, or from anyone. He didn’t like how the taste of them covered up the tastes of food and coffee. He enjoyed these tastes too well to smoke. He’d wondered, only in his most secluded moments, if Windom disapproved of Cooper’s indulging that sort of frivolous, personal pleasure. If that was why he kept offering, long after everyone else had stopped. 

Windom sat on the bed and lit a cigarette, though he didn’t move his eyes off Cooper. 

“It's been so long, Dale,” Windom mused, even though the casual reference to his absence made Cooper’s stomach turn to think of. “I’m not sure I remember how human beings fit together.”

“Never fear, Windom,” he said, striking a tone he hoped would be construed as seductive. “I shall endeavor to remind you.”

Undressing carefully, Cooper let everything fall to the floor but the cufflinks, lapel pin, and tie bar. These things he laid carefully on the side table next to an ashtray. He stood uncertainly for only a moment before Windom rose again to join him. 

Windom reached to weave fingers through the hair at the base of Cooper’s neck. He couldn’t hold back a wince at the way those fingers tugged at him, loosening the hair there from its tight hold. 

Windom pulled on his hair so that his head tilted back, and Cooper had to look down his own nose to see him, still only smoking. Still, Cooper wasn’t dismayed. The interest palpable in his partner’s eyes suggested distraction from the issues of the day. Which was something he wanted, even if he wanted it for more than one reason. An aching hunger started in his stomach and settled in his groin, and he felt embarrassed when he saw Windom notice this. His body cared nothing for what embarrassed him, though, and cared still less when Windom released his hair and pulled him flush against his chest. He held him there while discarding his cigarette in the ashtray. 

Windom released him and watched as he crawled onto the bed. A moment later, he removed his tie and followed Cooper.

On the bed, Cooper moved to straddle him, biting his lip at the way the fabric of Windom’s suit was rough against his thighs and erection.

Being naked like this, while knowing his partner was still wearing the same clothes he’d had on all day was an awful thrill. He felt exposed, in a way he had only ever felt with Windom, out of control, maybe. He couldn’t help the little movements he made, shifting his hips and gasping as he did it.

“Having fun up there?” Cooper went still immediately, red and embarrassed by Windom’s raised brow, and by his own pleasure-chasing. Wetting his lips, he nodded, only because he could not bear to ignore such a direct question.

Swallowing back his embarrassment, he leaned down to press close against Windom, lips brushing his neck.

“Where were you all that time?” He asked softly. He’d asked before. Caroline had asked before. Gordon had asked that morning at the office, his first question when Windom returned from his medical leave of absence. The answers differed in their wording, but never in their evasiveness.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out one day,” Windom answered, and things were no better than before.

“How do you know? Will you tell me?” he asked.

“No, no,” Windom said, the corners of his mouth sauntered upwards. He ran his hand down Cooper’s side, letting it come to rest at his hip. “Nothing like that,” he’s speaking in that amused tone he uses when he thinks Cooper is being obtuse. He rubs circles into Cooper’s hip with his thumb, the warmth of the hand so close to his groin that he can’t pay full attention to the conversation anymore. “It's just that everyone there was asking after you. They all seemed certain you would be joining in with them someday.”

Cooper furrowed his brow at the same time Windom roughly wrapped a hand around his cock. The fear and indignation he felt were discordant in the pleasure of the way his partner stroked him. His fingers curled on the lapels of Windom’s suit jacket, scrabbling to make sense of what he’s heard.

“I wouldn’t ever-- I wouldn’t ever join the people who hurt you,” he said forcefully, breathing hard through it.

“You’re lovely when you say things like that,” Windom said, keeping one hand working at his cock while he moves his other arm around Cooper’s back, to squeeze his ass. It felt good. It felt better because Windom was the one touching him-- brilliant Windom, who was unreachable in so many other ways, but let Cooper come close in this. This closeness was all Cooper wanted-- he continued to ask after the missing days, because Caroline thought Windom might tell him. In his heart, though, being held and touched was enough. He didn’t require answers. “So lovely, when we can both of us plainly see you’re the sort of creature who thinks he can wheedle secrets from people by climbing into bed with them.” Windom finishes the thought at the same time he finishes Cooper, so that the orgastic cry that escapes him is part ecstasy, part shock.

Cooper calmed down after a moment. The arms around him were still gentle, but now felt impossibly colder. His limbs felt heavy, his tongue just as immovable. When he finally summoned the energy to speak, it was only with weak denial.

“That isn’t why I’m here, Windom,” he said softly. Windom looked at him in a way that Cooper decided meant that he really did think of his missing time as a ‘secret.’ All the accusation really meant was that he and Caroline had been right to worry, and that what the man needed was catharsis. Anyone with his recent experiences would likely respond with similar suspicion of loved ones.

He tried to let that idea soothe him, listened to the shuffling sound that accompanied Windom finally removing his suit jacket. There was a crack in the ceiling near the ceiling fan that he focused on. Tomorrow would be better, Windom said things and didn’t mean them all the time. Caroline would listen and she would understand. None of these thoughts released the bleeding hurt in his chest.

Windom turned back to him, his hand slowly returning to Cooper’s abdomen. He shivers at the touch, sensitive from his orgasm. Windom ran a thumb through the mess still dripping on Cooper’s stomach. Without saying anything else, he brought the thumb up to Cooper’s mouth, pushing it between his lips and waiting until Cooper dutifully licked the mess away. The whole time he fixed Cooper with a look of fascination. The intensity of it reminded Cooper of how Windom looked at crime scenes, of how he looked when he read forensics reports. He pushed the thought away, resolving not to acknowledge it again. Instead, he closes his eyes and leans into the hand still resting on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> This relationship is kinda hard to write, particularly when Cooper is the POV character I think. My chronic horny-itis doesn't help obviously. I actually wrote a scene for this I liked a lot but ended up having to delete. Maybe someday tho rite


End file.
